TABLE 1

Example of the first hypothetical scenario

Asthma outcomes	Medication A	Medication B	Medication C	Medication D
I am likely to have fewer bad attacks	On average, my bad asthma attacks would reduce by just over one-third	On average, my bad asthma attacks would reduce by about half	On average, my bad asthma attacks would reduce by more than half	On average, my bad asthma attacks would reduce by just under half
I am likely to have an improvement in the control of my asthma (for example, have less symptoms)	☺	☺	☺	☺
I am likely to achieve an improvement in how my asthma symptoms affect my daily life (such as having to avoid social situations, completing my daily tasks of living)	☺☺	☺☺	☺☺☺	☺
I am likely to reduce my oral steroids (prednisone)	On average my steroid dose would reduce by just under half	On average my steroid dose would reduce by half	On average my steroid dose would reduce by up to three-quarters	Steroid reduction not known
Thinking about the above information, which medication would you choose? (Rank 1 (this is the one I want!) to 4 (this is the one I would prefer least))
What was the main reason you chose that medication?

Participants were provided with the following instructions. “There are different medicines that may work for you to help treat your severe asthma. We would like to understand what is most important to you in terms of your asthma medicines. To help us understand this, I'm going to present you with a series of scenarios in which you can choose one of four different medications. There are no right or wrong answers here, we just want to get an understanding of what you want from your severe asthma medicine”. “We have provided some information about each of these treatments. We would like you to consider each of the medications and tell us which medication most meets your preferences”. ☺: Improves a little; ☺☺: improves a fair bit; ☺☺☺: improves a lot.